Territory Manager

My job changed too. It started out as one afternoon per week that I would leave the office and help our local outside Territory Manager, Kevin Mills, with some of his smaller customers.

Kevin was a real professional Territory Manager. He had been at B&B for nearly ten years. He had grown the local business and was the top Territory Manager in the company. I estimated Kevin to be in his mid-thirties, married, a little stuck up, but basically a nice guy.

There was a group of smaller customers that he was not able to see regularly and between Kevin and Mr Bellows they decided it would be a good idea if I started working with them and try to grow our business with this customer group. I really enjoyed this part of my job. I became a Territory Manager trainee.

Near where I now lived was a big neighborhood style bar and restaurant. It was called The Regulator. It had big screens for sporting events and a dance floor. Normally they had music there on Thursday and Friday nights.

I had been there before but now that it was walking distance from my house I started becoming a regular at The Regulator.

I met my share of women there and often took them home with me. I tried to be polite and respectful and never try to lead them on with promises of a relationship beyond that particular evening.

But, so far, I had yet to meet a woman that was more than just a one night stand.

One Friday in April I was at the Regulator with Oscar, my old boxing pal, and across the room I saw my sister was there with her boyfriend Ben, and a small group of her friends.

My sister, Janet, was four years younger than me so we were never in high school at the same time. She and I were not particularly close, I guess that was a pattern in our family, but Janet and I were certainly friendly.

I saw there was a table next to Janet's where a group of people interacted with Janet's group. As if they were all friends. I noticed a petite, dishwater blond girl sitting at that adjacent table. I hadn't seen her before. I liked the way she looked.

When I saw Janet and Ben, her boyfriend, walk up to the bar I joined them to say hi and chat. What I really wanted to do was find out about the girl at the table next to theirs.

"Janet, Ben, how's it going?" I asked.

And we had the normal type of small talk conversation that everyone has.

Finally I got around to asking.

"So, who is the cute little blond sitting across from you?" I asked.

"Blond, who?" Janet asked puzzled and then she turned back towards where they had been sitting.

"That's Crystal," Ben said, and smiled.

"Roger, no." Janet said. "She's got kind of a boyfriend and he's an asshole. Crystal is a bit of a wild child too. Roger, find someone else." Janet told me.

"I was just asking, I've never seen her before." I said.

"She was a year younger than me in school," Janet said. "So maybe she just turned 21 and now is legal in the bars. She's actually a nice girl, but there's always some drama surrounding her." Janet went on.

At that moment one of Janet's friends, Ashley, walked up, through an arm over my and Janet's shoulders.

"What are we talking about?" She boozily asked.

"Roger's checking out Crystal." Ben told Ashley.

"Uh oh!" Ashley said. "Be careful big boy." Ashley added smiling as she walked to the women's restroom.

At that Janet swatted Ben's arm.

"Why'd you tell Ashley that?" Janet asked. "She's the biggest blabbermouth in town." Janet added.

"Sorry babe." Ben apologized.

Just as I got back to my table with Oscar the band started playing.

I noticed a tall red-neck looking dude in cowboy boots with his arm over Crystal's chair. He looked red faced and angry. I'd never seen the guy before.

A little while later I noticed Ashley, hand cupped to her mouth, whispering something in Crystal's ear. Crystal's eyes went wide and her gaze pivoted to me. I tried to quickly look away. When I looked back Ashley was gone and Crystal was smiling at me.

She certainly was cute. My type. Kind of petite with elfin features and a natural smile.

I smiled back. I tried to stay cool.

One thing I learned during my boxing lessons with Mac was to always stay cool. When you get angry, you make a mistake. I tried to use this philosophy for other parts of my life too. From an angry, hotheaded kid, I'd evolved into an outwardly calm, cool and composed young man. That was the image I tried to present.

But I knew there was that lava hot anger bubbling below my surface core. I tried to avoid confrontations that would expose this emotion.

An hour or so later, with the band in full swing, I noticed the redneck dude who had been sitting near Crystal seemed to be absent. I decided, under the premise of visiting with my sister, to walk over to where that group was sitting.

I was invited to join my sister and the crowd near her, they made room for Oscar and I. I chatted with most of the people including Crystal.

They started playing a song that apparently Crystal liked.

"Umm Roger, do you want to dance?" Crystal asked me, slightly shyly.

And so we danced.

Crystal would just stare at me with a half smile on her face through sexy, sleepy looking, half lidded eyes. I liked her look.

One song bled into the next and the third song was slow. Crystal just moved into my arms without hesitation. She continued the eye contact and I had a hard time looking away. Our embrace became tighter as the band played on.

Without notice I felt two large hands grab me by the shoulders and pull me away from Crystal. My normal reflexes were dulled by the previous languid mood. I stumbled to one knee, looked up to see the redneck asshole pointing at Crystal and glaring at me. Two of his asshole buddies were right behind and they kind of boxed me in.

"Stay the fuck away from her, if you know what's good for you." The redneck told me.

My temper was starting to flare and all of a sudden Oscar was by my side.

"Easy, easy," he quietly told me, and I stayed on one knee.

This minor fracas momentarily subsided and Crystal, redneck, and the other two assholes started walking back to the table. I noticed Crystal moved to sit down and redneck grabbed her upper arm, as if to pull her away from the table. Crystal tried to shrug him off. I could tell she was upset.

I walked over.

"Leave her alone," I calmly told the redneck.

He turned his angry red faced gaze to me.

"Fuck off shrimp, this is none of your business." He spat out at me.

He was five inches and probably twenty-five pounds heavier than I was.

I looked at Crystal, she was looking at me. A hopeful look in her eyes.

"Listen pal," I continued, "leave the lady alone. We don't want any trouble here." I told him.

With that he released Crystal and wheeled around on me.

"Why you son of a bitch, motherfucking little shrimp. Stay the FUCK out of this!" He said.

And with that he went to shove me. I easily dodged his attempt and redneck slipped at his failed attempt to contact me. This made him more mad. His buddies huddled around the two of us and Oscar stood up too.

Quickly, The Regulator's bouncers intervened.

"Don't care what the fuck you guys do to each other, just don't do it in here." They said.

Redneck insisted on settling this outside, I was still calm, but this guy was seriously pissing me off.

There was one lone comment made as the group of us marched to the parking lot to settle the disagreement.

"Darryl," a voice from the crowd said. "Do you know who you picked a fight with?"

If he even heard what was said, he ignored it.

Pretty soon there was the usual informal circle of bodies with redneck, I guess his name was Darryl, and me in the middle.

I was calm, and quickly got into my boxing stance.

In Golden Gloves my approach had always been, attack hard and fast. After sparring with Martin Gomez, I learned the art of counterpunching. Of waiting to see the opponents strategy and then find the right opening.

This seemed like the plan for this street fight.

Right away Darryl moved quickly, but sloppily toward me. Like I said he was much bigger and taller than me.

His first punch, a looping right hand, I saw coming a mile away. I easily ducked. The next one was even more telegraphed. With a slight head and body adjustment, his flailing punch connected with air. I looked over to Oscar, smiling with shrugged shoulders, palms up, as if, 'what can you do?".

My momentary distraction allowed Darryl a little bit of an opportunity. My reflexes were still crisp, but not what they once were and I sensed, rather than saw the roundhouse from Darryl.

My training kicked in and I tucked my chin and moved away from the punch but he caught my shoulder and the side of my head. It hurt. This big asshole didn't know how to box but he was strong.

A minor fissure in my calm core erupted. I turned to Darryl in a classic boxing stance. As he launched another slow overhand punch, I moved inside quickly, jab, jab, and then a right.

The right was hard, square on the chin. Darryl was stunned but still on his feet, a small cut over his right eye from the left jabs.

He kind of shook himself and attacked me even more aggressively. I moved away and his assault was without effect. I then moved in quickly. I flicked two lefts that broke his nose and then a right that stunned him. I followed that with another combo, left-right, and he fell to the ground, dazed, not quite knocked out but close.

For a moment his two buddies moved toward me, but Oscar stepped in front of them. Their bravado had no real energy.

The fight was clearly over.

Anticlimactically there was a lull as the group of spectators just stood there rather quietly. Darryl's buddies helped him up and they moved him across the parking lot away from the scene of the beating.

A single voice called out to the retreating party.

"I tried to tell you Darryl."

The same voice that had cautioned Darryl in the bar before the fight started.

A moment later there was the sound of a car starting up and quickly exiting the parking lot in a spray of gravel.

I took a minute to survey the group still standing outside The Regulator. Oscar, my sister Janet, Ben, several others, and Crystal.

And Crystal was now staring at me.

Janet suggested we all head to her place for a nightcap. No one wanted to wait around in case Darryl showed up with more violence on his mind.

Oscar said he was going to head home and I said I was too.

As we all sort of split up I found that Crystal was still there near me.

"Are you walking?" She asked.

And I explained where I lived, how close it was and that I never had to worry about my blood alcohol level as long as I was walking.

As we walked and talked it became apparent that Crystal was heading home with me,

We got to my house, I showed her around and showed her some of the projects that I'd been working on around the house.

"You own this house?" She asked.

I told her I did and she just kind of stared at me.

Eventually we ended up on the secondhand couch in the living room splitting the single beer I had in the refrigerator. We talked and I learned about her life. It was rough like mine had been, but she didn't seem saddened or angry. In fact she had this cheerful sunny personality that I was starting to like.

At one point the conversation stopped and we were just staring at one another, sitting side by side on the couch. I kissed her, and she kissed me back. We sat on the couch making out and I started feeling her body.

Crystal was maybe five foot four, short, straight dark blond hair and a slim physique. She had a nice shaped ass and medium breasts. I've dated better looking women, and I've dated women with better bodies. But something about the way Crystal put it all together made her extremely attractive to me. There was just a forthright sexuality to her that attracted me.

Eventually I got her down to just a pair of panties. I would suck her nipples and that turned her on. Her nipples were thick and as they engorged they took on a rubbery quality to them. I started sucking and lightly biting the nipples and that seemed to turn her on.

As I lightly teased and massaged her panty covered pussy I could feel the wetness through the material. She was really into it. When I thought she had a small shuddering orgasm either through the sucking or the rubbing I took a minute and stood up.

I began taking off my clothes. I looked at Crystal while I did this. She just stared back at me. When I removed my underwear her gaze shifted to my erection and she stared. She was looking at me like men look at naked women. She wanted me, I thought.

Just as these thoughts went through my mind she spoke.

"I'm not fucking you tonight." She told me, a half smile on her face.

I froze. I had a puzzled look on my face. We were both naked, except her panties, we were both turned on, and I had the impression that she liked what we were doing.

"You're not?" I asked.

"Not tonight," She said.

"Should I get dressed?" I asked. I was confused by the circumstances.

"I hope you don't," She laughed. "Roger, we can do other things, but if we screw on our first night together I'll feel slutty. Plus I like you. I don't want another one night stand." She told me.

For a moment I thought about her statement of 'another one night stand', but I quickly filed that away for now and thought of the 'other things' we could do.

And we did them.

We ended up both, now, completely naked on my bed. I nearly breached her vaginal walls a couple of times, but she disengaged and held firm to the no-fucking for now resolution.

We had fun rolling around naked. Eventually through a combination of a blow job and a hand job I ejaculated on her tits and stomach. She'd had multiple orgasms by this point.

After my release I collapsed next to her. I expected her to eventually exit to the bathroom to clean up, but when I looked over at her she was rubbing my ejaculate on her skin. In fact the sight of her rubbing my sperm onto her tits and nipples got me on the road to another erection.

"I like fluids." She told me.

I just stared at her, not sure what to say.

We ended up having another non-intercourse sex session. Before my mouth went back to her body I insisted on a quick communal shower.

Despite the lack of fucking it was one of the most sexually satisfying experiences I had ever enjoyed. Part of it was that I was starting to like Crystal. Not only her looks, but her fun spirit attracted me also. In the back of my mind I thought about the veiled warnings and comments I had heard about Crystal from my sister and others. I'm going to take it one step at a time, I thought.

We eventually did sleep and I made us coffee in the morning. We sat comfortably at my small kitchen table. Crystal just smiled and looked at me, not speaking, just looking.

"What?" I asked.

She shook her head, and just kept smiling and staring.

"Crys, what are you looking at?" I asked, now a smile on my face.

"You." She said, "I guess I just like you." She told me.

I didn't say a word at first, but what she said made me happy. I was sort of surprised at how happy it made me.

"I guess I like you too, Crys." I told her.

She came over,sat on my lap and I kissed her. Not the lust filled, sexual kisses of last night, but more a tender affectionate kiss. This was becoming interesting.

Eventually I took her to her home, a small apartment on the north end of downtown that she shared with another waitress at the restaurant where she worked.

She worked tonight until around ten PM. We made plans to get together on Sunday. In the meantime no discussion with Janet or anyone else about this, I guess you would call it, 'relationship' with Crystal. She may have a reputation, but I wanted to learn about her on my own before everyone started saying things to me about her.

We had lunch together on Sunday. Afterwards we drove north to Chandler Lake. We parked in a secluded spot and watched the water for a while and then started making out.

Soon I was sucking on those nipples and she gave me a handjob.

Still no intercourse but this may just be the best sex of my life even without the fucking.

And I realized I did like her.

I better do a little background investigation before it gets too deep, I thought. I called my sister. We chatted for a few minutes before I got into the subject of Crystal.

"So tell me a little about Crystal Greer." I asked Janet.

"Oh boy." Janet sighed. "I wondered if she went home with you Friday night." She said, "Did you fuck her?" My sister asked.

"No!" I said. "Janet, that's none of your business anyway. I was just asking what she was like and why you and Ashley made those comments about her." I asked.

Janet paused for a second, I could hear a deep intake of breath as if she were composing herself.

"Crystal was a year behind me in school." Janet told me. "In high school she seemed to start dating early. A lot of her boyfriends were older, asshole types. Like the guy you beat up. There were always some type of problem with her relationships. Break ups, fights, jealousy, messy incidents. I did have a couple of classes with her and she was always really nice to me. But she was one of those girls that jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend. There seemed to be no question that she was sexually active at a younger than normal age." Janet went on.

I sat and digested what she told me. There was nothing that she had said that was terrible. Sounded like just a little unstable. I knew girls kind of like this in school. In fact I'd dated a few. I also began to wonder if since high school she'd changed, matured. I know I had. Furthermore it wasn't like I was proposing to her or anything like that. Just gathering a little background information.

We continued to see each other. We also eventually did have sex. If I thought all the foreplay stuff we had done to date was good, the fucking was even better. There was no doubt that she was experienced, but what I liked most was the natural desire that she had. Many of the girls I dated acted like they were giving you sex as a favor. Not Crystal, she was into it.

We had a lot of fun together sexually and otherwise. I really liked her. I had my antennae up though. I watched, l listened, I noted her behavior, I analyzed what she said. I even asked her about Darryl. I specifically didn't want to hear a lengthy account of her complete sexual history, but because of our interaction, I did want to know about Darryl.

"I really only was with him for a couple of months". She said, "I had just broken up with Kenny when I met Darryl. He came into Brady's, where I work. He asked me out and we started dating. He got really possessive real quickly." She told me.

"I was going to tell him we were through the night I met you at The Regulator" she said. "I think he knew it. That's why he was in such a bad mood and picked a fight with you." She went on.

"I heard he moved to Montana." She told me in finality.

I thought about what she said. It all sounded logical. I decided on a strategy. The old Ronald Reagan phrase when dealing with the Russians, 'trust but verify'. I was going to keep seeing her but I would continue to observe.

Meanwhile my job at B&B was going great. I had evolved to a full time Territory Manager. Doing outside sales full time. I worked with Mr Bellows and Kevin Mills to create a territory. Kevin gave me a list of smaller local customers to work with and Mr Bellows gave me the geography east into western Montana.

No overnight travel but Wednesdays and Thursdays were long days for me.

I also found out that I would now get commissions on my sales.

One evening I was in the office after hours and Mr Bellows asked me to stop by his office before I left. I always enjoyed spending time with him. He always seemed to have my best interests at heart.